All in all, it’s been a pretty good week so far – I’m over the moon to be listed on Alpha Mummy – and I’m really looking forward to a fantastic weekend which won’t really end until Tuesday. Three birthday parties and my own belated birthday present – a trip to see a show. One of my greatest friends takes me to the theatre every year for my birthday and we go next week, I never know what we’re seeing until we get there.

I’m taking it easy today and will be lolloping on the sofa as I did a major work out with my personal trainer yesterday, he may be fit but I look more like this at the gym…

I got a bit of a knock back today. I’ve been rejected at first stage for a freelance job (that means on sight of CV in my world) because I’m not relevant. Well, that’s a bit of lie actually, I’m just being melodramatic…other people are more relevant apparently. From what I gather, there are just too many candidates around for too few jobs. I did the old peashooter/moon trick again yesterday (that’s what I call uploading your CV to apply for a corporate job…see here). I’m spending my days following up on job options and there’s nothing at my level around, I’m overqualified for what’s out there or too restricted by the commute. I simply refuse to spend three hours commuting and missing out on seeing my wonderful Miniminx.

As usual at this time of day, when I’ve exhausted the usual avenues of searching for work, I’m left wondering what I’m going to do. I need some inspiration as I feel like I’m going round in circles at the moment. Do I just start up my own business and dump the career and do my own thing?
Or do I just tough out the next few months? I’ve got some options up my sleeve at least but for now I’m going to get creative again and finish my collage…it could be a good career move!

On days like these, this is the song that always lifts my spirits – INNER CITY BLUES, MARVIN GAYE – I found it on youtube…go on, have a listen, I might just have to play it again, it’s just brilliant, the lyrics resonate completely with our times even though the track was released in 1971

Miniminx and I have both got cricked necks from too much Wii Fit and sleeping at funny angles – oh ha ha not. I’ve learned the true meaning of a pain in the neck. Oh yes, kids do say the funniest things don’t they. My reputation is in tatters thanks to Miniminx and her salacious gossip…

Taking full of advantage of my lack of gainful employment, Miniminx enjoyed a day at home on Monday with warmed neckpad, hot water bottle, Disney Channel, lots of moaning and wearing out the battery on her DS (oops sorry I darling, I forgot where I hid, I mean tidied away the charger…). She seemed fine yesterday, so off to school we went.

A few hours later, I get the call from school, ‘Your little darling is in the sick bay and wants her Mummy’. So off I pootle to school and pick her up and we have to cab it to my long awaited facial with her wearing my long-haul-flight-neck-cosy… I thought I’d take advantage of the Giraffe 2-4-1 dinner and stuff cooking so off we went afterwards for a nice quick supper and an arm wrestle over homework.

‘Mum, it’s lucky I can remember your mobile number off by heart now as the ladies in the school office didn’t have to go through all the files.’
‘Oh, you’re such a clever little darling aren’t you!’
‘Oh yeah, and they asked if you’d be at work but I told them you wouldn’t be ‘cos you’re UNEMPLOYED now and NOT WORKING.’
‘Thanks darling’

So it doesn’t end there, that was just the beginning….

I love Amy Winehouse and her scat cat antics, she’s one of my favourite singers and mostly, her lyrics are unintelligible to Miniminx (and me actually), but I think she’s going to have to be silenced for a while. Last night, Miniminx called down the stairs ‘MUUUUUUUUUUM?? WHAT’S REEE HABBB???

‘Oh, you know, it’s for drunks and druggies darling’
‘What does that mean?’
‘Um, well, if Mummy was drinking two bottles of vodka and having a glass of wine at breakfast, I’d probably need to go to rehab. But obviously I don’t need to because I don’t’ I said smugly…

My little angel’s face poked out of a mountain of bathtime bubbles and said what only an eight year old can…
‘Ha ha, I’m going to tell everyone at school you’re going to rehab…’

Well that will go down like a cold cup of sick with the school gate mums…I’m going to get a t-shirt printed and fast…I’M NO AMY.

Needless to say, she is in school today sporting a ThermaCare heatwrap with instructions to keep a lid on the gossip or all gadgets will be returned to Lapland pronto!

In an effort to keep myself occupied I’ve decided I’m going to really work this blog world. Personal blogging is hugely different from professional blogging and I am finding it a challenge to keep going. It’s more to do with ego keepy-uppy than anything else – how do you stay a) motivated while unemployed b) able to write dazzling copy c) not sound like a moaner?

The truth is, things are just not hot on the job front. I’m going to have to reinvent myself and learn some pretty new tricks in order to stand out from the crowd. The social media CV just ain’t working. Every recruiter I speak to says it’s hugely competitive out there and there are hundreds of candidates, when only a year ago there were few and far between. When I apply for jobs on corporate web sites, I feel like I’m aiming a pea shooter at the moon. My CV disappears into the ether, I get an acknowledgement and then nothing. Boo hoo.

I’m used juggling career and family and social life and addicted to high octane living, travel, pressure, deadlines, excitement and now my wings are clipped. So while I can chill out and take stock, I really need to feel engrossed, entertained and/or that I’m gaining or learning something and this morning that is how I didn’t feel until I got a few calls and managed to have a bath and get my face on. So what else have I done to do (btw I never add in the 7-9am school run mania, maybe I’ll post on that another time…)

And let’s not forget today is one of the most important days of this century – yep, Obama inauguration. It’s unavoidable and fantastic!!! I hope this spells the end of the credit crunch but it’s going to be a hard one to pull off. I’ve said it more than once, 2009 is the last year of the naughty noughties and boy this is one hangover to end all hangovers…

As someone who is regularly woken at the ungodly hour of 5.30am by the screeching noise of aeroplanes stacked up in the sky and waiting to land, I’m horrified that the Heathrow Expansion has got the go ahead.

I don’t believe it’s any coincidence that for the last month or so the air has been relatively quiet in the early hours of the morning. This morning, I was woken up by Miniminx at 6am – she’d woken up really early for her and as she came into my room we both heard the screeching of a plane coming in to land. Strange that this happens just the day after the government news announcement on HRW. I maybe a cynic and conspiracy theorist on this but I’m certainly not on the expansion issue.

I feel very let down by the government on this. I fear it is too late for any member of the public to effect a reversal of the decision. Friends of the Earth got it wrong – they expected a delay on the decision just a couple of days ago. Nice web site greenpeace, but has it worked? I fear not. For those of you who read Fast Food Nation, doesn’t this smack of the same kind of thing as the car companies lobbying against and ending the expansion of the railways in the US? The companies with the most to win are the most likely to push out the underdog. And in this case, it’s the privatised travel industry versus the little people, you and I. We’re just being fed spin and pollution.

After the Terminal 5 catastrophic launch last year, this news can only lead to more disaster. I predict that Heathrow, with all it’s shopping malls and restaurants, hotels and car parks, will become a city in it’s own right.

For anyone that works, lives or travels in the area, you’ll know how bad things are getting. The filthy air, the low flying planes, the noise and disruption to daily lives is just too much. I don’t know if I want to live around here much longer.

I’ve been a great fan of Labour but the first thorn in my side was the Child Benefit scandal when thousands of records of families went missing in the post. The letter I received telling me that my personal details and those of Miniminx had been lost made me think twice about voting for Labour again.

If the government wants to wrong foot the Liberal borough of Richmond and the conservative areas around Heathrow – Kew, Chiswick etc. well more fool them. This could mean a swing to the right and an election win for the Conservatives. Just one more Labour fiasco and Brown will be on his way. For me, as much as I detest Cameron, I would think about changing parties over this issue.

So now it’s finally the school holidays, and boy has it been a long time coming, we decided to go to the cinema in Shepherds Bush yesterday -how long will Vue keep going with 14 Screens opening across the road at the new Westfield? After watching all the trailers online – Bedtime Stories, Devereaux, The Ink something or other and probably a few more, we went to see Four Christmases which Miniminx loved (some of the more adult jokes were way beyond her but the gross out stuff certainly wasn’t). The trailer is laugh out loud funny and for once there are still more gags in the movie which is my usual pet peeve with comedy ie. you know all the jokes before you even peck at your first bite of popcorn.

Westfield – the carbuncle on the side of the A40 that has gradually taken shape over the last few years with new bus garages and tube to accommodate shoppers – is open after a long wait, and at the height of the credit crunch, most shops have opened with huge price cuts.

Oh my god! It’s amazing – plus they have Wagamama, so lunch was sorted – also very American and it seems much bigger than the Westfield in San Francisco. Apart from being overheated and over lit – why do we get told to buy energy saving light bulbs when shopping centres blaze light 24-7? Miniminx asked for pocket money to buy me a Christmas present so I gave her £10 and she asked the lady behind the desk at Tiffany & Co what that would buy here – prices start at £40 she was told, much to her dismay!

We mooched around Miu Miu, Prada, DKNY – nothing very inspiring and no sale on in the big labels yet. There is a Zara Home so we had a good look around – it’s changed in the last two years, it’s no longer a cornucopia of exotic items, it’s trying to take on the blandness of The White Company and it’s more expensive – I bought a faux fur white bedspread at The White Company for £90, while Zara Home had throws starting at around £129-£179 – that brand can’t command that price so I’d expect to see huge price drops in the sale.

I should have taken photos – the kids have little W12 Black Taxi buggies to help them around the shops – great idea. Lots of very modern comfy public seating – it was all full though.

I’ll definitely go back, it’s a complete change of scene and quite refreshing – not sure if my love affair with Selfridges will continue – but Shopping, Seduction and Mr Selfridge lends an air of mythology to the place which I don’t think Westfield will ever have. We will see how that compares when we visit on Tuesday – in the meantime, I have to try and book a visit with Santa at the Selfridges Grotto.